Chocobos and Chaos
by OMFGhehehe
Summary: Lightning finds a mysterious chocobo when traveling through the Wildlands. The locals call it the Angel of Valhalla, but what happens when a voice inside her head prompts her to give it a 'secret name'. Lightning and her chocobo manage to get to the great chaos and find out the truth behind what's causing it.


Lightning wasn't really sure what to expect when she reached the Wildlands. She was thinking it would be like the Archylte Steppe; but, to her surprise, it wasn't at all. There were no giant Adamantoise running around nor was there an empty plain. It seemed to have a forest and also had a small town.

She figured she should check out the village for more information on the Angel of Valhalla, so she headed that direction. While walking, Lightning took in the sights all around her. This place seemed much livelier than Archylte Steppe.

Upon arriving at Canopus Farms, she made her way to the vet she was told about. His name was Dr. Gysahl and he had been chasing the legend for centuries. Lightning decided she should get more information.

After talking to all the people in the small farm village, she was able to conclude she needed to head to the old ruins and look for the Chocobo Eater, the Angel of Valhalla's mortal enemy.

The old ruins were not far from Canopus Farms and there wasn't much for her to fight; she had been vanquishing all of the monsters she had come across. So far she'd made Mini-flans, Ectopudding, Reavers, Niblets, and Gremlins extinct. That was a pretty impressive list she thought.

As she got closer to the ruins, she could hear sounds of battling. She speed up hoping to catch the Angel of Valhalla before it ran off. To her surprise, when she got there the Angel of Valhalla was bloody and lying in front of an enormous green monster. She assumed that to be the Chocobo Eater, so she engaged it. The battle was easy for her since she had been fighting for a long time.

Luck seemed to be on her side when a couple on chocobos came running over. They said they'd get the doctor who carried the chocobo back on a make-shift trailer. Lightning decided to ride along. For some reason, she was getting worked up over the giant bird and she had no idea why. It was as if she'd fought with it before.

The doctor did the best he could for the bird and Lightning could only watch. She knew she wouldn't be able to help at all. He approached her and asked her to try feeding the Angel. She accepted the greens from his hand and tried feeding the chocobo. She was shocked when it actually accepted the food.

"You know me don't you?" She asked the bird. Immediately, she felt stupid for talking to a bird that couldn't talk back or even understand her!

"It'll need more to recover, you should get it vitamins, greens, and fresh milk," Dr. Gysahl directed. Lightning just nodded. She turned to pet the chocobo again before leaving when a mysterious voice sounded in her head.

"Give to him? Talk to him? Name him?" Lightning was confused at why she heard that, but that gave her the idea of naming him. She liked the idea of the Angel having a secret name that only she knew.

"Cuddles," She said without much thought. The chocobo kwehed in response and she took it as the bird liked its name.

She felt like the Angel was actually hers now. She would be the only one who knew its name. With that thought in her head, she quickly left to go get the required items.

A small village on Aryas Cliff had the milk she needed. She got a bottle after directing the sheep back into the pen. She figured if the guy was smart, he'd put a gate on it. A guy outside the Jagd Woods had her collect some vibrant ooze and then gave her a mystical meal. Finally, in the Jagd Village a woman made her some chocobull after she searched for the materials.

Lightning felt lucky the task was so easy. She was eager to return to Cuddles. She thought the name was very fitting of her new chocobo since it was absolutely adorable and nuzzled her.

"Eat up," she said while petting Cuddles's head softly. The bird attacked its food with fervor. After eating, the bird seemed to be ready to carry Lightning around. It had jumped up and squawked.

"Let's go, Cuddles," she whispered to the bird. Hope advised her to go to where the great Chaos was said to be. Luckily, Cuddles would be able to get her there. First, she had to help him heal.

"I would recommend finding the Yeul's Flowers that Nadia talked about," Hope said. "It could help the Angel of Valhalla heal up so it can fly once more." Lightning remembered seeing several patches, but the nearest one was in Aryas Cliff. The village took no time to reach on Cuddles.

"I see the Angel of Valhalla has gotten better," a man she passed by observed.

"Of course Cu-err-the Angel of Valhalla has. He is very strong," Lightning replied. She was proud of her steed.

As Cuddles led her away she heard Hope ask her, "What were you going to call that bird?" She knew she'd been caught red-handed.

"I decided to give it the name Cuddles," she explained. She felt ridiculous for telling Hope this, but she knew she'd slip up sooner or later. It was better to get over this now.

"Cuddles," Hope said incredulously. Lightning sighed. If it was anyone but Hope she would want to strangle herself for letting someone hear her call a chocobo that. She had no idea why she decided on that name.

"It's a secret name so don't tell anyone," Lightning demanded. She wasn't sure how Hope would tell anyone, but she never knew.

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"Finally," Lightning said. She was exhausted from doing all sorts of favors for people. She wasn't even sure why she agreed to do half them, but she was done now. Currently, Lightning and Cuddles were at a ruined town called Poltae. It was very dirty and Lightning crinkled her nose at the man laying on the ground.

"Come on Cuddles, we have to get to those ruins," she said in a low tone. She was still trying to keep the secret name a secret. The bird seemed to know the way and took her up a small hill to reveal many rooftops acting as stepping stones to get to the ruins.

"Light, you have to hurry. You only have a couple hours left today," Hope instructed. Lightning rolled her eyes. Hope was such a bother sometimes. She used chronostasis to stop the time and Cuddles flew through the air. The bird managed to get her all the way to the ruins and there, she had to leave him.

"I'll come back, but I have business to take care of. I'm not sure you can climb this ladder." No matter how much Lightning wanted to bring Cuddles with her, she just couldn't.

What she didn't expect was the chocobo to prove her wrong. The still slightly-injured bird flapped its wings hard and made it to the top of the small cliff. Lightning just stared at it in awe. She had no idea it was that good at flying.

The pair made their way into the ruins. Lightning found it nice to have a battling companion. Yeul gave her a strange look when meeting her in the temple.

"You brought him with you?" She asked. Disbelief was apparent on her face. "This is not how I saw the future." Lightning did not stay for the rest of what Yeul said because, quite frankly, she thought the girl was too creepy to be around.

"This goes so much faster with you here, Cuddles," she said as she gave the bird loving strokes. It was a nice change to not walk. She also was able to take shortcuts since the bird showed her its new flying capabilities.

A small voice in her head said it was probably best to talk to Yeul because she might have information, but she reprimanded it and thought that she better stop letting Hope talk to her. He was making her own head voices turn on her. She shuddered at the thought of having a bunch of mini Hopes in her head.

Suddenly, Cuddles stopped and Lightning could see why. Caius Ballad was standing in front of her. "Caius Ballad!" she cried for no reason.

"What do you want," Caius asked. He had been very busy it seemed with the quilt wadding in his left hand and a pot of grey paint (or so it seemed).

"What are you doing?" she asked hopping off Cuddles. She walked over to inspect what he was doing. Looking around at the materials she realized quickly what he was doing. This was where the Chaos was coming from. He was dipping the batting into the pot to make it grey just like the chaos that engulfed her. _No wonder it was so soft._

"Are you making Chaos?" she asked. Caius nodded and continued doing his job.

"This is one thing that all of the Yeuls will, so I have no choice." He didn't even look up when speaking to her. "I make the Chaos and the many Yeul's spread it around the world."

"That's certainly not what I expected," Lightning admitted. Caius just grunted as a response and Lightning took the hint. He didn't want her to be around him. She had no choice but to… troll him.

Lightning started doing everything possible to get on Caius's nerves. She poked him endlessly while asking stupid questions.

"What's your favorite color? Animal? Food? Are you transsexual? Do you know Kain? What's the deal with all the feathers? How did you meet Yeul?"

"Would you shut up?" Caius asked with grit teeth. He was getting flashbacks of Valhalla where Lightning trolled him in a similar way. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly in order to suppress a shudder.

"Why do you dress like that? I saw a guy who would be perfect for you. Isn't Cuddles cute?" Lightning immediately clasped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say that.

"Cuddles?" Caius inquired. Lightning figured that pretending she didn't say it would be the best option.

"Cuddles? I didn't say anything about Cuddles. I just said, 'Aren't moogles cute?'" she thought that maybe Caius would believe her, but he probably wouldn't. She was acting too suspicious for that.

"No, you asked if Cuddles was cute, and my guess is Cuddles is the name of your chocobo." Caius hoped that Lightning would be so embarrassed she'd leave. To be honest, Caius wasn't fazed by the name of the chocobo because when he'd seen it a couple centuries ago he had rode on it. He called the bird his "Snuggly Wuggyly Bunny-Boo". He hope no one found out about it.

Caius honestly had no idea why he named it that, but he thought it was because he heard a little voice in his head that told him to give it a secret name.

"You got me, but that's a secret name. Don't tell anyone or I will make you wish you hadn't," Lightning threatened.

"Fine, but you better leave now. As you've noticed, I'm busy." Caius smiled triumphantly as Lightning turned and left. Now he could have another boringly peaceful night of making 'Chaos'.

When Lightning got out of the temple, Yeul was waiting for her. "I have something you must know about your chocobo." After the word 'chocobo' Lightning was immediately interested in what she had to say.

"The truth is, it's your old friend Odin. He turned himself into a chocobo so he could be with you again." Lightning looked at Yeul trying to see if she was lying, but it seemed she wasn't.

"So I've been calling Odin…" she trailed off. She didn't want to think about the fact she called **Odin**, Cuddles. This was something she didn't want anyone to know, so she figured she should go back into the temple and kill Caius, and there was only one way to do that… Troll him to death.


End file.
